 Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reprinted the Muhammad cartoons to illustrate a story about the attack on Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Both Iran and Pakistan condemned the publication. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast: "Such acts are against the sanctity of religious values and are strongly condemned." "One cannot harm the religious sentiments of over one billion Muslims under the banner of freedom of speech," he said. "Such blasphemous acts will not contribute to the establishment of world peace. They will only make the Norwegian government liable before the international community for failing to prevent provocative behaviors that are in violation of human rights." The Pakistani Foreign Office also strongly condemned the reprinting of the cartoons, and urged Norway to take appropriate measures and ensure that the people who committed this blasphemous act were appropriately reprimanded. Aftenposten's chief editor, Hilde Haugsgjerd, says they did not get any direct responses from Muslim groups. They have got some reactions from individuals but nothing serious. Pakistani organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is on the UN's terror list, called on Muslims to protest. A small group of Islamists protested in Lahore last Friday, carrying a sign saying that "anyone who kills Kurt Westergaard will be hero of Islam" and calling to boycott all Norwegian products. Professor Tore Bjørgo of the Police University College in Oslo doesn't expect any violent responses. Aftenposten is just one of many newspapers who have reprinted the cartoons. Laila Bokhari of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs says that it all depends on how the news spreads and who will pick up on it and use it. Norwegian Parliamentarian Ulf Erik Knudsen (Progress Party) posted the cartoon on his Facebook page, leading to further rage in Pakistan, but later removed the image. At least 6 other newspapers in Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal and Suriname published the cartoons following the attacks. Norwegian site Nettavisen published the cartoon for a short time before removing it. In Belgium, the ex-Muslim group "People Against Islam" announced a Muhammed cartoon contest on their site, saying they were inspired by Aftenposten. Meanwhile, more details are coming out about the US plot against Jyllands-Posten. The American-Canadian terrorists planned to blow up a truck outside the Jyllands-Posten offices. A Pakistani terror group put the two in touch with associates in European countries, who could supply them with money, weapons and manpower for the attack. Following the attack on Westergaard Danish authorities decided to provide him with additional security. The 30 agents needed for round-the-clock cover are expected to cost about 19.5 million kroner a year. Sources: PressTV, DAWN, Washington Times, Copenhagen Post 1, 2 (English), NRK, Nettavisen, VG, Aftenposten (Norwegian), Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish), Standaard (Dutch)
 The 28 year old Somali who is suspected of the attempted murder of caricaturist Kurt Westergaard, (pictured), worked at a Danish Red Cross center.
Up to the day before the 28 year old Somali MMG went to Aarhus to attack caricaturist Kurt Westergaard he was on watch on a Danish Red Cross center, where he dealt with young unaccompanied immigrants.
The Danish Red Cross confirmed to Jyllands-Posten that MMG was working through a temp employment agency at three Danish Red Cross centers for children and youth.
These are the centers in Gribskov, Sjælsmark and Avnstrup, which house children and youth aged 15-17 who typically come to Denmark as unaccompanied refugees. The Somali worked in keeping the children and youth occupied with the various activities in the centers.
The head of the Danish Red Cross Asylum division, Jørgen Chemnitz, discovered Thursday that the Somali had been employed in the organization.
He says that the Red Cross made sure by the Mano Crew employment agency that he had no criminal record or any problems with a former sexual offense, so he could work with children.
Jørgen Chemnitz says they think they've guarded themselves by requesting the two certificates, and that nobody among the regular staff who had worked with the Somali has anything bad to say against him. Everybody describes him as helpful, friendly and accommodating. They've never seen anything which would indicate that the man did anything against the children and youth in the center. Additionally, they have a principle that a temporary worker can't work along with the children.
According to the Mano Crew agency, the 28 year old Somali worked 600 hours altogether, but they did not say how many of those were for the Red Cross.
Source: JP (Danish)
With thanks to Islam in Europe
 AN axe-wielding Somali terrorist is behind a foiled attempt to break into the home of a Danish cartoonist whose depictions of Islam's Prophet Mohammed infuriated Muslims. The 28-year-old Somali national armed with an axe and a knife had terrorist intent and was close to the Somali Shebab movement and al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the internal security service PET said in a statement. Danish police shot and wounded the man who tried to enter Westergarrd’s home. He was shot in a knee and a hand but his life was not in danger, according to reports. He was expected to be charged with attempted murder of Westergaard and a police officer. It is understood the Somali man had a legal permit to be in Denmark. Kurt Westergaard, who has received several death threats since a Danish newspaper four years ago published his drawing featuring Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb, was at home in Viby near the western city of Aarhus guarded by police when the intruder tried to get in. Prosecutors said a Chicago-based men spent at least a year working with a Pakistan-based terrorist group to plan an attack. The security alarm was set off when the man tried to enter the house before being shot by the guards, the daily Politiken reported online. The intruder, wounded in the arm and leg, was hospitalised. It is unclear whether the Somali man managed to enter the home. “I locked myself in our safe room. He tried to smash the entrance door with an axe,'' Westergaard, 74, who was in the house with a five-year-old grandson, told Danish news agency Ritzau. PET said in a statement: “The attempted murder of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard is linked to terrorism. The person arrested ... has close links with the Somali terrorist organisation al-Shebab as well as with the heads of al-Qaeda in east Africa. “He is also suspected of being implicated in terrorist activities when he was in east Africa. The individual arrested has also been a member of a terrorist network implanted in Denmark that has been under surveillance by PET for a long time.'' Police had earlier reported there were three intruders before saying there was just one. Ritzau said a dozen police vehicles were at the scene while sappers were sent in to look for a bomb that might have been laid. Westergaard is one of 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Muslim prophet were first published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, sparking controversy among Muslims worldwide. The 12 cartoons were considered offensive by many Muslims and their publication sparked violent protests worldwide in January and February 2006. Two men had already been arrested in 2006 for plotting Westergaard's murder. Demonstrators burned Danish flags in protests that culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan. The Australian
 The Danish cartoonist, who has received several death threats since a Danish newspaper four years ago published his drawing featuring Mohammed wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb, was at home in Viby near the western city of Aarhus when the 27-year-old and two others tried to get in, daily Politiken reported online. Guards repulsed the three intruders as security alarms were set off, and the wounded man was hospitalised. Denmark's Ritzau news agency said a dozen police vehicles were at the scene while sappers were sent in to look for a bomb that might have been laid. Contacted by AFP, Jutland police confirmed an incident near the home of the 74-year-old cartoonist but refused to give details pending the release of a statement later. The 12 cartoons were considered offensive by many Muslims and their publication sparked violent protests worldwide in January and February 2006. Demonstrators burned Danish flags in protests that culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan. The Australian 
 Nearly monthly, new studies and books about the problems with the integration of Muslims in Germany and whole Europe are published. In France, Great Britain and the Netherlands the problems seem to be most obviously, but also in small Denmark. In the aftermath of the Mohammed-cartoon crisis, there have been some changes concerning Muslims in politics and public opinion. The German Review of Books talked to Nicolai Sennels, a psychologist who worked for several years with young criminal Muslims in a Copenhagen prison, about recent developments.
Mr. Sennels, since the publishing of your book “Among Criminal Muslims” in 2008 and our last interview, there have been some changes in the Danish integration policy. For instance, the Danish government just announced a tenfold increase in payments to encourage reverse migration. This is one of your main requests: paying Muslims, who are not willing to integrate, to return to their countries of origin.
It is clear that my book had an influence on the debate. Many politicians quoted my book, and it is clear that the book has contributed to a more free debate in Denmark.
My experiences from extensive travelling throughout our continent, my lectures and of course international media, is, that Denmark is Europe’s tip of the spear when it comes to acknowledging the problems with Islam and Muslim immigration. Parties that talk openly about these problems are growing, and parties that don’t are close to extinction. Even the two biggest left wing parties agree – the Social Democracy Party and Socialistic Peoples Party – that they will not change the strict immigration laws that have been made by the Dansk Folkeparti.
Soon we will probably get a law that will kick immigrants out of Denmark if they block or interfere with police work.
This law is crucial to regain secular control of Muslim-dominated areas. While the prospect of imprisonment does not seem to scare immigrants from committing serious and dangerous crimes, it seems that losing the chance to live in our country is the only thing that really scares them. This is also my own experience from working with criminal Muslims: The one thing they fear is being deported.
Unfortunately, the chiefs of the police are very much holding back their efforts in Muslim areas. They claim that they “do not want to throw gasoline on the fire.” In the short run, this may of course be a reasonable strategy, but it also means that Islamic laws and authorities become more powerful in these areas every day.
My experience from working psychologically with Muslims shows that the Muslim culture does not find it easy to be “equal.” Either you are over or you are under: You can be different and unequal, but you cannot be different and equal. The chiefs of the police and many politicians hope for some kind of “mutual acceptance,” but this is not possible in cultures developed under Islam.
Concerning these no-go-areas, even for the police, and the growing influence of the Islamic clerics, you recently wrote in your blog at Jyllands Posten about Muslim imams as a kind of Fourth Branch of Government.
Imams, Islamic priests, have a strong influence on their followers. For many Muslims the words of an imam are law – and for even more Muslims they are guidelines for lifestyle and political views. The power of Islamic authorities among Muslims is very often much more influential and respected than secular laws and norms.
Representatives for secular authorities are very often attacked in Muslim-dominated areas in Denmark and the rest of Europe. The police and politicians are not safe in these areas.
Police get mocked, receive threats and are often attacked physically when entering Muslim areas. We recently had the tragic yet comical experience of seeing one of our most politically correct politicians, the mayor of integration in Copenhagen, Jakob Hougaard, being attacked by Muslims who tried to stone him and a journalist during an interview in the Muslim ghetto, Tingbjerg.
The ironic thing is that Hougaard is “on their side,” claiming that there are no problems with violence in Tingbjerg and that Islam has nothing to do with terror and integration problems. Hougaard even promised in the Islamic magazine “Akhbar” to sponsor religious Islamic festivals if he got re-elected as mayor at the elections on November 17th, 2009 – which, by the way, he did not win.
Policemen and politicians are not the only ones who are attacked, stoned, etc. Ambulance drivers, firemen and even completely normal people who assist the elderly are also attacked. The problem they have with the people assisting the elderly is apparently that these people wear clothes that bear the logo of the state.
(more)
Source: German Review of Books (English), h/t EuropeNews
With thanks to Islam in Europe
 A CHICAGO man already accused of plotting to kill employees of a Danish newspaper was today charged with taking part in the planning of the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said. David Coleman Headley conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the attack on India's largest city that killed about 170 people, the DoJ said in a statement. Mr Headley, 49, was charged with six counts of conspiracy to bomb public places in India, to murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, to provide material support to foreign terrorist plots, and to provide material support to Pakistani-based terror organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was also charged on six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India. Mr Headley is the first American to be charged. In October, Mr Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, were alleged to have been involved in a plot they codenamed the “Mickey Mouse Project” to attack facilities and employees of Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper that offended many Muslims with its Mohammed cartoons.
 Allegations that a former Pakistani military officer was closely involved in a suspected terrorist plot with a Canadian are raising new concerns about where Pakistan stands in global counterterrorism efforts. Indian officials have long suspected that Pakistan was somehow connected to attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people and wounded hundreds more. The New York Times reported this week that a previously unidentified player is a recently retired high-ranking Pakistani military officer. The report is expected to put further strain on Pakistan's relations with India, but also with the United States. "It's an excellent illustration of how deep the Islamist sympathies run in the Pakistani military," said Professor Tristan Mabry, an expert on India-Pakistan relations with the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. Prof. Mabry estimates that the United States gives Pakistan about $1.5-billion in economic aid each year plus $1.5-billion in military funding. This infuriates India, he said, which sees itself as a victim of Pakistani-supported terrorism. An FBI affidavit unsealed this month makes repeat references to someone it identifies only as "Individual B." Citing sources, The New York Times reported that the individual is an ex-military officer, but did not give a name. The affidavit was filed after the arrests of Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian who has lived the past 10 years in Chicago, and his boyhood friend David Headley, who was known as Daood Gilani until three years ago. None of the allegations against the two men has been proven in court. Based on intercepts of phone calls and e-mail exchanges - primarily between Mr. Rana, Mr. Headley, the ex-Pakistani military official and two men listed by the U.S. as senior terrorism figures - the FBI arrested Mr. Rana and Mr. Headley last month under suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. The FBI's case focused primarily on claims the two men planned to attack the offices of the Denmark newspaper Jyllands-Posten over cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that infuriated many Muslims. The FBI's affidavit notes, however, that the plot appeared to shift this fall to an attack in India. New information about Mr. Headley surfaced this week in a profile by the Philadelphia Examiner. The paper had interviewed Mr. Headley's mother, Serrill Headley, in 1974. According to that 35-year-old interview, Ms. Headley, who grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, said she married a Pakistani diplomat and lived in Pakistan for 10 years, but the marriage fell apart and she lost custody of her children. In 1977, she brought her son to Philadelphia, but she said he had a hard time accepting that she ran a bar because of his Muslim upbringing. In recent years, Mr. Headley and Mr. Rana both posted regular messages on a Yahoo message group for former students of a military school in Hasan Abdal, Pakistan, according to the FBI. In one 2008 post, Mr. Headley wrote that Islam should not be mocked, and that he was "disposed toward violence" against the Danish cartoonists and authors Sherry Jones and Irshad Manji, a Canadian. Globe and Mail
 Two Chicago men charged with scheming to launch a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper also discussed an attack on a military college in India, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Prosecutors made the allegation in court papers as U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan prepared for a hearing to consider release of one of the men, Tahawwura Rana, on bond. Prosecutors said Mr. Rana discussed with the other man charged in the case, David Headley, the possibility of an attack on the National Defense College of India.
The court papers did not provide more information on the alleged discussion and no other details were immediately available. The document also said that Mr. Rana, who operates a Chicago immigration service, discussed the possibility of slipping people into the U.S. illegally with an unnamed individual belonging to a Pakistan-based terrorist organization. Charges that the two men plotted to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten were unsealed last week by federal prosecutors. The newspaper sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world in 2005 by publishing 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims considered the cartoons extremely disrespectful. Prosecutors have said Mr. Headley, whose former name was Daood Gilani, envisioned a plan to murder a cartoonist and the newspaper's former cultural editor. Defense attorney Patrick Blegen has said that Mr. Rana--a Canadian national who was born in Pakistan and also owns a grocery store on Chicago's north side--was merely an innocent dupe of Mr. Headley or did not take Mr. Headley's plans seriously. Prosecutors said the conversations about potential targets showed that Mr. Headley was serious. Mr. Headley's attorney has said he has no comment on the case. Source: WSJ
 A few pen strokes thrust Kurt Westergaard into the midst of an international crisis, exposing him to death threats and an alleged assassination plot. Terror charges brought against two Chicago men this week show the 74-year-old Dane remains a potential target for extremists, four years after he drew a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. "I am an old man so I am not so afraid anymore," Westergaard said Tuesday in an interview with Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published his drawing in September 2005 along with 11 other cartoons of Muhammad. The drawings triggered an uproar a few months later when Danish and other Western embassies in several Muslim countries were torched by angry protesters who felt the cartoons had profoundly insulted Islam. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry. Westergaard has said it took him 45 minutes to make the drawing, considered by many Muslims to be the most offensive of the 12 cartoons. He has rejected calls to apologize to Muslims, saying poking fun at religious symbols is protected by Denmark's freedom of speech. The drawing was meant to illustrate that extremists draw "spiritual ammunition from Islam," but not criticize the religion as a whole, he told broadcaster DR in February 2008 after Danish police uncovered an alleged plot to kill him. "I realize that when issues of religion are involved emotions run high, and all religions have their symbols, which possess great importance," he said. "But when you live in a secularized society, it's clear that religion can't demand some sort of special status. ... "I have a problem with the fact that we have people from another culture who don't accept that we use religious elements in a drawing." The cartoon uproar forced Westergaard underground, living under the protection of Denmark's intelligence agency, PET. "For my wife and I, it's like a kind of dark depression has descended on us," he told DR. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
 Cartoon Rage Update. "US charges two over 'terror plot,'" from the BBC, October 27 Two men in the US city of Chicago have been charged with planning attacks on foreign targets, the US justice department has said. David Coleman Headley, 49, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, were both arrested earlier this month. Among their alleged targets was a Danish newspaper that printed a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, sparking angry protests from Muslims. Prosecutors say Mr Headley travelled to Denmark twice to plan an attack. The justice department said it had uncovered "a serious plot against overseas targets". Mr Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, was arrested on 3 October as he was about to travel to Pakistan. He has been charged with "conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming" outside the US and also with conspiracy to provide material support for the attack. Prosecutors allege he visited the Copenhagen and Arhus offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which printed the cartoons, for surveillance purposes. The charge sheet alleges he also travelled to Pakistan to meet members of the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.... Source: JihadWatch
 The fallout continues for Yale University after its decision to publish Jytte Klausen's book, The Cartoons That Shook the World, without printing the images of the Prophet Mohammed that are the book's focus. Yale said experts it consulted warned that publishing the images "ran a serious risk of instigating violence." A group of 44 Yale alumni wrote to President Richard Levin urging that the school reconsiders "its unprecedented censorship." "Simply stated," the alumni letter said, "Yale must not be the arbiter of what is 'safe' to publish. Such censorship corrodes the intellectual freedom that is the foundation of the entire university community." Notable signatories include former U.N. representative John R. Bolton, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Robert Kagan, novelist Matthew Klein, and columnist Diana West. The letter comes on the heels of an announcement by scholar Sarah Ruden that she no longer would accept bids from Yale University Press on her future work. Yale published her translation of The Aeneid last year, but she pledged to take future projects elsewhere. Read more ...Source: IPT Blog
 By Joshua Rhett Miller Muslims need to develop a sense of humor and an appreciation of satire — and they need to understand that they are not "free of being mocked or being offended," says the Danish caricaturist whose cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad incited rage throughout the Muslim world four years ago. Kurt Westergaard told roughly a dozen listeners Wednesday night that he will "always" be ready to defend an individual's right to religious freedom. "As the Danish tradition is for satire, we say you can speak freely, you can vote, you can speak out anytime, but there's only one thing you can't do — you can't be free of being mocked or being offended," Westergaard said. "That's the conditions in Denmark and so many countries." Westergaard spoke at a private residence in midtown Manhattan in conjunction with the Hudson New York Briefing Council. It was just his second appearance in the U.S. since the 2005 publication of his notorious cartoon, which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban resembling a lit bomb. In Islam, any depiction of Muhammad is forbidden and considered blasphemy. Westergaard's controversial cartoon was one of 12 that appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 and led to widespread violent protests throughout the Middle East, Asia, Denmark and Africa. Read more here,,,, Source: FoxNews
 Elan Journo Four years ago this week, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons featuring Mohammad.
What followed, some months later, was an outright assault by Muslim activists and regimes on our freedom of speech.
Aftershocks from that crisis continue to erode free speech in the West. A recent example was the decision by Yale University Press to cut all images of Mohammad from a book on the cartoons crisis(!).
The stated reason for that move was the publisher’s fear of violent Muslim reprisals. In an interview with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Flemming Rose, the editor behind the notorious cartoons, talks about the incident at Yale and free speech. One of his comments — about the response of U.S. publishers to a book he’s writing on the crisis — was particularly illuminating: [FR] Yes, I am still in the process of writing this book. Hopefully it will be published in Denmark next year. In fact, I already have had contact with some top publishers in the U.S., but it was my impression—though I can’t prove it—that they were quite positive to the book, but when I said that I couldn’t imagine a book without the cartoons, they lost interest. I wonder just how much self-censorship is going on today. Regarding the Yale U.P. book that was stripped of all visual depictions of Mohammad, Mr. Flemming quips that it seems “…Al-Qaeda has been appointed editor-in-chief of Yale University Press.”
To me that aptly names the stakes: until our government takes a principled stand and firmly upholds our right to free speech in the face of intimidation and threats, we in effect subordinate our liberty to Islamic religious dogma. Source: Ayn Rand Center
by Grace Four years ago on September 30, 2005, Jyllands-Posten published twelve drawings of Islam’s prophet Muhammed. To demonstrate that prohibition of any depiction of the prophet, as stipulated by sharia law would not trump Denmark’s freedom of the press, twelve cartoonists had their entries published. Here they are: 
Muslims around the world rioted in response. At least one hundred deaths were reported. The Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran were torched. European buildings were stormed and the Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, and German flags were desecrated in Gaza City.
Mahmoud al-Zahar of Hamas issued death threats. Critics of the cartoons described them as Islamophobic and racist, arguing they were blasphemous to Muslims and a manifestation of western imperialism. In 2008, slightly after two years of the initial publication, the cartoons were re-published. More riots ensued, complete with shouts of ” death to the cartoonist!”. Meanwhile, thousands of illustrations of Muhammed have appeared in books by and for Muslims. 
Persian or central Asian illustration showing Muhammed teaching.
| | | | Fourteenth-century Persian miniature
showing the Angel Gabriel speaking
to Muhammed.
| Muhammed at Medina, from an
Arab or central Asian medieval-era
manuscript. | The Prophet Muhammed in a Mosque. Turkish, 16th Century, painting on paper. The artist depicted Muhammed in very long sleeves so as to avoid showing his hands, though his neck and hints of his features are visible. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Newly born Muhammad in his mother’s arms being shown to his grandfather and citizens of Mecca. From Turkish book painting (date unknown). University of California, San Diego.
James Cohen, vice president of the Canadian desk, IFPS writes thoughtfully and succinctly on the declaration of September 30 as International Free Press Day: “To further advance the cause of freedom of the press, the International Free Press Society takes the occasion of this first International Free Press Day to salute Kurt Westergaard, and to call, once again, for the repeal all blasphemy and hate speech laws that currently inhibit and restrict vital exchange and debate”. Source: Vlad Tepes H/T: Gramfan
 Why did Yale University Press remove images of Mohammed from a book about the Danish cartoons?By Christopher Hitchens The capitulation of Yale University Press to threats that hadn't even been made yet is the latest and perhaps the worst episode in the steady surrender to religious extremism—particularly Muslim religious extremism—that is spreading across our culture. A book called The Cartoons That Shook the World, by Danish-born Jytte Klausen, who is a professor of politics at Brandeis University, tells the story of the lurid and preplanned campaign of "protest" and boycott that was orchestrated in late 2005 after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ran a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. (The competition was itself a response to the sudden refusal of a Danish publisher to release a book for children about the life of Mohammed, lest it, too, give offense.) By the time the hysteria had been called off by those who incited it, perhaps as many as 200 people around the world had been pointlessly killed. Yale University Press announced last week that it would go ahead with the publication of the book, but it would remove from it the 12 caricatures that originated the controversy. Not content with this, it is also removing other historic illustrations of the likeness of the Prophet, including one by Gustave Doré of the passage in Dante's Inferno that shows Mohammed being disemboweled in hell. (These same Dantean stanzas have also been depicted by William Blake, Sandro Botticelli, Salvador Dalí, and Auguste Rodin, so there's a lot of artistic censorship in our future if this sort of thing is allowed to set a precedent.) Read more ... Source: SlateYale
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
In its August 13 report on the decision by Yale University Press to censor Jytte Klausen’s book The Cartoons that Shook the World by insisting that she publish the book without the Danish cartoons or other images of Mohammed, The New York Times informed its readers that Yale University and Yale University Press consulted two dozen authorities, including diplomats and experts on Islam and counterterrorism, and the recommendation was unanimous: The book, “The Cartoons That Shook the World,” should not include the 12 Danish drawings that originally appeared in September 2005. What’s more, they suggested that the Yale press also refrain from publishing any other illustrations of the prophet that were to be included, . . . It turns out, though, that the recommendation was not “unanimous.” As The Guardian reported yesterday, Sheila Blair, professor of Islamic and Asian art at Norma Jean Calderwood University and one of the authorities consulted by Yale about publication, said she had “strongly urged” the press to publish the images. “To deny that such images were made is to distort the historical record and to bow to the biased view of some modern zealots who would deny that others at other times and places perceived and illustrated Muhammad in different ways,” she wrote in a letter to the New York Times which is yet to be published. As it happens, I have a copy of Professor Blair’s letter to the Times. I asked her whether I could make it public; she said no. Read more ...Source: PJMH/T: Gramfan Yale
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 Kurt Westergaard said he was disappointed 'on behalf of freedom of speech'
if the BBC did not show his interviewBy Paul Revoir The BBC has been accused of appeasement of radical Islam by the artist behind one of the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Kurt Westergaard claims the corporation's decision not to air a recent interview with him came because they are petrified of upsetting Muslims extremists. Westergaard was one of the 12 cartoonists commissioned by the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005 to produce caricatures of the Muslim prophet. Islamic tradition says no image of him should be produced or shown. Read more ...Source: Daily MailBBC
Latest recipient of the Yellow Rag Award
 March 2
Leaders of the Support Prophet Mohammed Organization, based in the Gulf state Bahrain, on Sunday stressed the need to establish a TV channel in Hebrew to teach Israelis about Islam's values, the Dubai-based newspaper Gulf News reported.
The organization hopes that with the help of TV, which they consider to be the most effective medium, and by using people familiar with Israeli society, they can present explanations about Islam to Jews and help them better appreciate the religion, the paper reported.
The decision was made after a cast member on the Israeli version of the reality show Survivor, said he had named one of his shoes Muhammad, and the other was named after an Israeli Arab cast member who the Israeli cast member did not get along with.
The organization was established in Bahrain after cartoons of the prophet Muhammad were first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005, which sparked riots among Muslims.
The controversy regarding the publication caused a fierce debate regarding the limitations of freedom of speech, and led to the cartoons being re-published as acts of support for the Danish paper by newspapers in Norway, Germany and the Netherlands.
Some 100 people lost their lives as police in various countries tried to control the ensuing demonstrations. In addition, Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran were set on fire and death threats were issued against the cartoonist and the editor-in-chief of the paper. Source: www.icelebz.com
 By Jacob Laksin For someone who inadvertently triggered a clash of civilizations, Flemming Rose doesn’t look much like a provocateur. With his salt-and-pepper hair, college sweatshirt, and jeans over sneakers, the cultural editor of the largest Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten, seems disarmingly casual, a far cry from the frothing “Islamophobe” and “far-right” reactionary—never mind the “Straussian neocon Mossad agent”—that some of his more intemperate detractors imagine him to be. But such is the reputation that has shadowed the mild-mannered Rose since September 30, 2005, when he published the 12 now-famous (or infamous) cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that took the world by storm. By now, the basic outlines of what the Danes call the Karikaturkrisen are well known. Troubled by what he saw as a growing tendency toward self-censorship in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe, especially on the sensitive subject of Islam, Rose commissioned 40 Danish artists to submit drawings of the prophet. Contrary to later accusations, the idea was not to insult Muslim believers but to test whether freethinking artists were prepared to privilege a religious taboo over freedom of speech. Rose made his point. Revealingly, only 12 artists participated, submitting drawings that ranged from lampoons of the center-right paper to a drawing of the prophet with a bomb-shaped turban. Then all hell broke loose. Although the initial response was muted, by February 2006, the cartoons, distorted to destructive effect by a group of Danish imams, had stoked a backlash in the Muslim world. Rage-fueled riots killed 139 and injured 823; Danish embassies were torched in Lebanon and Syria; and Denmark was hit with boycotts and diplomatic sanctions from Muslim countries. Whatever one’s views of the offending cartoons, they were, by any objective measure, the deadliest drawings ever published. Read more ...Source: Doublethink
 RIYADH - The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a league of 57 Muslim nations, said on Monday a Danish court's rejection of a suit against a paper for printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad could provoke "Islamophobia." The High Court for western Denmark on Thursday rejected a suit against Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that first published cartoons of Islam's prophet, leading to deadly protests in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The court said the editors had not meant to depict Muslims as criminals or terrorists, the cartoons had not broken the law, and there was a relationship between acts of violence and Islam -- comments that provoked outcry among Muslim groups in Denmark. "It is a known fact that acts of terror have been carried out in the name of Islam and it is not illegal to make satire out of this relationship," the court said. The Saudi-based OIC, the largest grouping of Muslim countries, said the ruling could encourage "Islamophobia," a fear or dislike of Islam, which the group has identified as existing in the West. Read more ...Source: Reuters H/T: Jihad Watch
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